If you haven’t heard, the Idaho State Board of Education announced last week that Boise State’s football complex will be named the “Gene Bleymaier Football Complex.”

That’s fine and dandy, but what progress has Bleymaier made with the football operations center at San Jose State? After all, he works for the Spartans?

I asked football coach Ron Caragher about the planned football complex, which includes an ops center and the Bill Walsh Institute. (The Spartans have expanded the size and scope of the project, to be located just beyond the north end zone, since its initial unveiling.)

Caragher said the complex is “getting closer” and that “half the money has been raised.” Nor did he rule out a groundbreaking this spring.

That is all encouraging news for Sparta. The future success of the football program is tied to the football complex coming on line in the next few years and allowing SJSU to hold its own against Mountain West schools on the recruiting trail.

But I’d caution anyone against getting overly optimistic given the financing challenge and state bureaucracy. Whatever your expectations are for the date the complex opens its doors, double them. (See: Memorial Stadium renovation, UC-Berkeley.)

Some spring practice details are below. But let’s start, as usual, with the big picture …

Before they can finalize their master plan, first-year head coaches must first determine their program’s identity: Where is the mesh point between the head coach’s philosophical preference and the type of players he has the best chance to recruit based on the program’s location, tradition, resources, etc.?

Another component to the master plan is determining the scheme and personnel required to unseat the conference kingpin.

Cal isn’t going anywhere in the North until it figures out how to overtake Stanford and Oregon, which have owned division for two years and conference for four. (Technically: Oregon for four, Stanford for three.)

What makes Sonny Dykes’ dilemma particularly interesting is the Cardinal and Ducks use vastly different systems to achieve their dominance.

How does Dykes go about building a roster and designing a playbook that will give the Bears the best chance of overtaking two very different heavyweights?

We got our first answer Wednesday, and if you’re a frustrated Cal fan, it’s the answer you wanted to hear: With power football.

* Note: An incomplete version of this post published accidentally on the Hotline at 7:08 a.m. It has since been updated …

Action: Cal edges Oregon and Oregon State to extend winning streak to five and inch closer to NCAA Tournament berth.Reaction I: Watching the game in Eugene, I kept thinking: First team to 50 wins — not realizing that neither team would even get to 50. Watching the game in Corvallis, I kept wondering: Will that pre-game technical foul free throw matter? Um, yes.Reaction II: Essentially, the Bears are playing like the team many of us expected to see all season … A team with an elite backcourt, modestly productive frontcourt and the ability to grind out wins on the road … A team that was good enough to finish in the top three or four of the Pac-12, make the NCAAs as a No. 10-12 seed and, given a favorable matchup, reach the round of 32.

* After all, without the RPI, there might not have ever been a BracketBusters. Here’s an early version of my column for Saturday’s edition of the Merc and other Bay Area News Group papers // …

This weekend marks the end of BracketBusters, the decade-old event featuring teams from outside the power conferences in late-February, non-conference showdowns.

Its epitaph should read:

BracketBusters2003-2013It served its purpose. Mostly.

“For our situation, it has been great,’’ said Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, whose team faces Creighton on Saturday in the marquee BracketBusters matchup, with NCAA tournament implications for both teams.

The Gaels have been a regular participant in BracketBusters, which was created by ESPN and a handful of college officials to serve a singular purpose: Provide teams from the so-called mid-majors with resume-boosting games.

With participating conferences agreeing to block out a late-February weekend, ESPN could wait until the middle of the season to set the matchups.

San Jose State held its first practice of the spring Tuesday — the Spartans’ earliest start date on record — while the Bears and Cardinal get started early next week.

Each head coach has met with the media recently: Stanford’s David Shaw held a teleconference late last week; SJSU’s Ron Caragher answered questions after his first practice; and Cal’s Sonny Dykes conducted a 90-minute Q&A with reporters Wednesday.

I attended/participated in all three sessions and will post a series of overviews for each team in the next few days.

Stanford is again splitting its 15 spring workouts into two sessions, with a three-week break in between for exams and spring break. (This year, however, the Cardinal and White Game will be at Stanford Stadium, not Kezar Stadium.)

Cal and SJSU are going straight through. Both conclude March 23, the first Saturday of the NCAA Tournament — there are games that day at San Jose’s HP Pavilion.

The Hotline took a look at the current at-large case for Cal and Stanford earlier today. The Bears are in solid shape, the Cardinal, not so much.

The Gaels seem to fall somewhere in the middle: Their resume probably isn’t as strong as Cal’s, but it’s better than Stanford’s.

For those unfamiliar with the selection process, here’s a snippet from a Feb. ’11 post, following my experience at the NCAA Mock Selection exercise in Indianapolis.

I’ve updated from the original to provide context:

Then we switched back to the selection process and followed the same voting procedure:

Each committee member picks eight teams from the under-consideration group. The four receiving the most votes are pulled out and paired with four in the at-large holding category.

Those eight are ranked by each committee member, and the top four move into the at-large field; the other four go into the at-large holding bin and are then compared to new teams brought in from the under consideration group.

As you can see: Everything is relative.

How do Saint Mary’s quality wins stack up against other teams in the under consideration and at-large holding groups?

*** Stanford fans have plenty of reason to be disappointed with, but hardly surprised by, the recent downturn. For nearly five years, the Johnny Dawkins-coached Cardinal has failed to build on momentum, take advantage of opportunities and maximize its talent.

The weekend sweep at the hands of the L.A. schools left Stanford, which was picked fourth in the preseason media poll, in a tie for eighth place. (Here’s the poll, for those in need of a refresher.)

With three weeks left, plus the conference tournament, it remains too early to speculate on Dawkins’ future:

Stanford could get hot down the stretch; it could crumble; or it could bump along, winning as often as it loses. To frustrated fans desperate for a coaching change, I’d urge caution.

First-year athletic director, Bernard Muir, has given no indication, publicly or privately, that he plans to even consider a change.

A late-season collapse could very well leave Muir with no choice, and it’s entirely possible that Muir is keeping his card as close to the vest as the laws of physics allow.

But fans should not assume that another middle-of-the-Pac finish means that Dawkins is done.

To the bubble watch …

Please keep in mind that the categories below are just a few of the tools the committee uses to assess the relative merits of each team, in addition to a subjective assessment (i.e., the eyeball test).

*** The Pac-12 reprimanded Montgomery on Monday but did not suspend him, which seems fair:

It was clearly in the moment, and clearly not malevolent or intended to embarrass or harm Crabbe. But it was a major, major, major mistake — one that will stay with Montgomery for this season and future seasons and into retirement.

Equally troubling were his seemingly-flippant postgame comments … “It worked, didn’t it?” … “I’d do it again” … which indicate Montgomery had no idea he’d crossed a line that no coach should ever cross, regardless of intent or success.

I’ve known Montgomery for more than a decade and covered his Stanford teams, day in and day out, for four seasons. He doesn’t pander; he isn’t a BS’er; and he is wholly convinced of the virtue of his own intentions.

But Montgomery has never had a great handle on the realities of public perception, whether it’s the emphasis placed on NCAA tournament success (as opposed to regular season achievement) or, in this case, physical contact with a student athlete.

His comments assuredly stemmed from the unwavering belief that he’d done nothing wrong — his singular desire, after all, was to motivate Crabbe. But he failed to grasp the real-world reality and reaction, to say nothing of the reaction of his own athletic director.

To the bubble watch …

The NCAA releases what it calls the nitty-gritty information on 347 major college teams every Monday. It’s the data the selection committee uses to select and seed the March Madness field.

This post is a look at some of the relevant info on Cal’s resume (and yes, we’ll do this all over again in a week or two).